The rumors of Adobe being bought by Apple come up every so often. Apple could easily afford such a purchase and the results would be interesting. I would love to see Adobe restructured by a company like Apple. Adobe has many applications that are the gold standard but it seems to lack focus. These are my thoughts on what Apple could do with Adobe’s biggest apps and make everyone’s life a lot easier. Video Adobe’s video market could be trimmed down. Anything that can already be done in Final Cut Studio should be gone, including Premiere and Soundbooth. I’m not sure if After Effects would even be worth it in the end. Most believe that Final Cut is a very nice video suite on the Mac platform and in the PC world, AVID holds the crown. Why is a program like Premiere needed? It’s not quite AVID but way better than Windows Movie Maker. Now throw Sony Vegas in there and it’s starting to get crowded. Apple could create Final Cut for the PC or forget about them altogether. This would come down to money in the long run.

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Why Apple Should Buy Adobe

A year after the launch of FileMaker Pro 10, the Apple-owned database company is back to debut the latest version of its franchise product. FileMaker Pro 11 introduces long-awaited features and builds on the interface and engine improvements to create new capabilities. I have been taking the product through its paces for the last few weeks and I am left with the impression that this is what FileMaker Pro 10 should have been because the changes made to the interface and the scripting engine are really evident in 11. The update includes a variety of improvements that will benefit both users and developers. A New Start When greeted by the redesigned Start Screen, among the starter solutions offered as a template is a new Invoices solution. This solution allows you to track customers, products, and invoices in a single database. Invoices implements multiple tables and relationships on multiple keys and provides a great introduction to a moderately complex database. I recommend peaking under the hood to get a feel for how things are done if you are new to FileMaker. Beyond the starter solutions, you can also create a new database by starting with data from Bento, XML files, Excel spreadsheets and other sources.

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First Look: FileMaker Pro 11

Section: iPhone / iPod touch / iPad , iPad , iPhone Carriers , Features , Opinions and Editorials , Originals When Apple announced the iPad at the end of January, it was met with both excitement and contempt. There had been so many rumors leading up to the announcement that it was guaranteed to leave somebody disappointed. One of the questions leading up to the event was “How would it connect to the internet?” WiFi seemed to be a given, but lots of people hoped there would be a 3G option as well. But along with the prediction of 3G was the hope of maybe Verizon or even Sprint as data providers this time instead of AT&T. But during the keynote Apple announced to a stunned audience that they would once again be working with AT&T . Why AT&T Again? Since that announcement, lots of people have asked “Why AT&T again?” This question is based on the fact that many people have been very disappointed—and even frustrated—by the performance of AT&T’s 3G network performance and coverage. There are states like North Dakota and South Dakota where AT&T has little or no coverage at all, and even the big cities like New York or Los Angeles have been plagued by very poor performance. My experience has not been so bad. I live in a rural area that also happens to be covered by AT&T’s 3G service, and it works very well. I know this has not been the case everywhere, and I can attest to that when I travel to places like San Francisco or Chicago. I also experienced the coverage issues as I traveled cross country this past summer. But I think the answer to why AT&T was chosen again is not as much an issue of network performance as it is network technology.

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The iPad and AT&T; here we go again

Section: iPhone / iPod touch / iPad , iPhone , iPod touch , iDevice Apps , Mac Software Macintosh and iPhone/iPod/iPad product updates and announcements for March 2, 2010: Macintosh iPod Macintosh The Mac Sale is now live with a new bundle. This bundle includes amazing apps such as PathFinder and VideoConverter Pro. As usual, the bundle costs $49.99—a steal for over $500 worth of applications. Yazsoft has announced Playback 1.5 , a major update to their popular zero configuration media server for Mac OS X. Playback allows anyone to share their media with any Playstation 3, Xbox 360, or other supported UPnP compatible device. Playback can also share media stored in folders or even make entire disks available to a Playstation 3 or Xbox 360. By default, Playback will share almost any content on the users system. UNIEA has kicked off their UNIEA Omniverse Photo Contest . They’re looking for Omniverse case users to submit photos of their Omniverse in action for a chance to win a $100 gift certificate to unieastore.com. Plus, all photo submissions will be used to create a new Omniverse video that they’ll be publishing in the Spring. In order to give folks who want to be in the contest a chance to pick up an Omniverse case (in case they already don’t have one), they’re giving all registrants a 20% off coupon code to use at unieastore.com. Mac users can now benefit from secure connections to remote business networks over the Internet

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Mac, iPhone, iPod and iPad product news – March 2, 2010

Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night can keep the new 14.6MP Pentax K-7 down–tight weather seals and low noise at high ISOs ensure that if you have the chops, this camera will deliver no matter what the conditions. The K-7 retains much of the great feature set of its predecessor, the K-20 (5 out of 5 stars, Dec/08), with a few additions. It now sports a brilliant 3-inch LCD viewscreen, 5.2-frames-per-second continuous shooting, 1/8000-second shutter speed, and a whisper-quiet shutter. Its innards are protected by a weather-resistant body, and HD video capture has been added. All fine improvements. Redesigned (and repositioned) controls also make the camera handle like an ergonomic dream. Most are now logically grouped to the right of the LCD. Playback and delete buttons have been moved below the mode dial, where they’re within easy reach of the left thumb, and the Exposure Value (EV) compensation button is now next to the shutter-release button (for lightning-fast, forefinger access), instead of being buried in the camera’s back. We frequently used the EV button to improve image quality by varying exposures on extremely dark or bright scenes. While you can set the camera to bracket exposures, using EV compensation is faster and more precise. In its new location, we could now easily access the EV button–thumbing the control to change values without removing our eye from the viewfinder. Pentax’s K-7 offers weather seals and an ultrafast 1/8000 shutter speed. The K-7 draws power from a new, more powerful Li-ion battery, and we took nearly 900 shots (about a quarter of them with the camera’s built-in flash) before it required recharging. Up to and including ISO 1600, image quality at all megapixel settings–14.6, 10, 6, and 2–was virtually noiseless with excellent color accuracy. Output up to 13×19 inches on an Epson R2880 was also sharp and clean

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Pentax K-7

Sure, the unibody MacBooks have longer-lasting batteries. But for many, those improvements came at too high a cost–no swapping of spare batteries can be a lethal limitation. But for the folks at Sanho, it presented a dreamy business opportunity, and their line of batteries delivers the plug-and-go power that many of you crave, though you’ll pay a premium for it. Sanho claims its batteries can be recharged 1000 times. Our intern wept when we asked him to test that stat, so out of mercy, we haven’t verified it. We tested the 150-watt-hour HyperMac, which clocks in at 2.4 pounds and $399.95. That’s both surprisingly pricey and surprisingly heavy for its 8.9×4.9×0.8 inches.

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Sanho HyperMac External Battery

Section: iPhone / iPod touch / iPad , iPhone , iPod touch , iDevice Apps , Mac Software , Originals Macintosh and iPhone/iPod/iPad product updates and announcements for February 26, 2010: Macintosh iPod Macintosh iTacet Software has released Cookie Platter 1.0 , a Mac OS X application which automatically deletes all unwanted cookies and saves specific cookies based upon a user’s favorite websites. This innovative software can process cookies for multiple web browsers simultaneously and allows customization by browser, domain and type of cookie. Users can group all domains into their root domain, as well as the ability to preview the cookie’s website without opening a browser and more. Codewave Software Michael Descher has announced that MyTunesRSS has been successfully introduced at Jazz at Lincoln Center for digital music library sharing. MyTunesRSS was selected from the pool of music sharing tools because of its advantageous features and overall usability. MyTunesRSS is a Media Server that makes iTunes libraries or simple watch folders available on a local or corporate network, or even over the internet. Zevrix Solutions has announced BatchOutput Server 4.2.8 , an update to its output workflow automation solution for Adobe InDesign. Originally developed for a major publisher in the U.S., the software automates InDesign output by processing files from hotfolders. BatchOutput Server offloads printing and exporting to PDF and PostScript to a central system leaving operator workstations free from the output process

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Mac, iPhone, iPod and iPad product news – February 26, 2010

I wrote a review of GroceryIQ just over a year ago and I have continued to use it frequently. The new GroceryIQ 2 expands on the original concept by taking advantage of the power of a connected mobile device that can tap into the cloud. These significant improvements have pushed the app from “frequently used” to “indispensable” on my own iPhone. I’ll run down the features for you and then share some comments from the developer on how the cloud and the iPhone have come together to create great software. What’s New in Version 2 The big update in version 2 is list syncing between multiple iPhones. In practice, this feature is incredibly valuable. Whenever my wife updates the list with something that we need, I get a push notification that something has been added to GroceryIQ. When I get to the store, I open the app and it quickly syncs my lists so that I am sure to not miss something we need. In addition, my wife instantly benefited from the effort I had put in to organize the aisles to match the layout of our store as well as the history and favorite items that I use to quickly build shopping lists. GroceryIQ 2 also adds some features related to its acquisition by Coupons.com . You can find coupons on your iPhone and print them straight from the phone to a supported HP printer. I have a Canon printer so I use the email option to send the list of coupons I selected on the iPhone and print them from my computer. The list categories show logos for items that have coupons available as another reminder. The gee-whiz feature in this release is barcode scanning to add items to your shopping list

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GroceryIQ 2: Shopping in the Cloud

Section: iPhone / iPod touch / iPad , iPhone , iPod touch , iDevice Apps , Macintosh / Apple Hardware , Originals Macintosh and iPhone/iPod/iPad product updates and announcements for February 25, 2010: Macintosh iPod Macintosh For those who manage their money on a Mac, Quicken Essentials for Mac is now available from Intuit Inc.  Built from the ground up with the look and feel Mac users expect from their products, QEM, as it’s known, provides a simple and easy way to handle the essentials of money management. For AppleTV users, there hasn’t been an easy way to get Boxee’s Beta loaded since they released it publicly at CES this year. They’re now reporting that a few users teamed up to resurrect the ATV-Usb creator and craft an updated solution specifically for the Boxee Beta. Even better; if you already have Boxee Alpha installed on your AppleTV, you should be able to just update Launcher and then update Boxee to install it, no new patchstick needed. iEntertainment Network has announced WarBirds’ Dogfights—the latest release in the successful WWII aerial combat WarBirds series. Single-player Dogfights presents player pilots with fast-flying combat contests across the embattled skies of Europe and the Pacific. Dogfights is filled with player choices. Players can choose among 100 historically accurate aircraft to battle an armada of incoming aircraft in thousands of unique combat mission combinations. With Dogfight’s dynamic game engine, no two air battles will ever be the same.! As Google prepared to open its Chrome Extensions Gallery in early December, iOpus Software was working behind the scenes, creating a virtual Swiss Army Knife for the streamlined browser: iMacros for Chrome

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Mac, iPhone, iPod and iPad product news – February 25, 2010

Poor AT&T: They take a licking and keep on ticking. But if a new report is to be believed, the telco giant has actually made some dramatic improvements to their 3G network in the last year. If you were to go by the television commercials alone, AT&T’s wireless division provides both “a better 3G experience” as well as “the nation’s fastest 3G network.” Based upon PC World’s latest 3G wireless performance study, both claims appear to be true, according to TUAW . PC World teamed up with wireless analysis firm Novarum for the study, comparing all four major U.S. wireless carriers in 13 cities across the country from December, 2009 through January, 2010. The study encompassed 51,000 separate tests, 850 square miles and 7 million wireless subscribers. Out of the four carriers — that’s AT&T, Verizon Wireless, Sprint and T-Mobile — AT&T showed dramatic improvements when compared to a similar study conducted in March and April, 2009. AT&T hands-down had the fastest download speed in 11 of the 13 cities on notebook computers using either built-in or external 3G cards, and the fastest upload speed in all 13. On the smartphone front, AT&T had the fastest download speeds in nine of the 13 cities, but again took the crown for fastest upload in all of them. And despite the vocal complaints of iPhone users, the pairing of the device with AT&T provided the fastest download and upload speeds of any device — with the exception of reliability, where it only slightly trailed the pairing of T-Mobile with the G1, which posted the highest score in that category

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Can You Hear Me Now? AT&T Has Undergone “Drastic Makeover”